MEN­TAL HEALTH IS TREAT­ABLE

FAR too many peo­ple in WA with a se­ri­ous men­tal ill­ness are not get­ting treat­ment or ad­e­quate sup­port. It's es­ti­mated less than 50 per cent of Aus­tralians who have a se­ri­ous men­tal ill­ness get treat­ment.

Ob­vi­ously this is alarm­ing; no one should go through men­tal ill­ness alone.

The Men­tal Ill­ness Fel­low­ship of WA urges peo­ple who may have men­tal health is­sues to reach out and get the help they need.

There is sup­port out there from GPs, clin­i­cal spe­cial­ists and most im­por­tantly com­mu­nity men­tal health ser­vices.

Call 1800 985 944 for sup­port from any­where in Aus­tralia if you or some­one you know needs ad­vice or visit MiNet­works.org.au.

Our lat­est cam­paign high­lights 230,000 peo­ple in Aus­tralia are es­ti­mated to have schizophre­nia.

When you in­clude fam­i­lies help­ing these peo­ple, around one mil­lion peo­ple are im­pacted.

It is ut­terly shame­ful that the av­er­age life ex­pectancy of some­one with schizophre­nia in this coun­try is now just 54 years. Peo­ple with schizophre­nia can and do re­cover.

We also high­light it's time there was much more gov­ern­ment fund­ing for men­tal health ser­vices in all ar­eas of Aus­tralia.